Seems like if you are a fan of chinoiserie and new traditional decor, the holy grail is finding an affordable version of hand painted chinoiserie wallpaper. The beautiful, hand painted silk wall coverings by Gracie, de Gournay and Paul Montgemery, et al., starts around $800 or so per panel. But now the wait is over -- looks like digital technology has come pretty close to providing an affordable version of this product.
My boss would be horrified if she knew I even considered using digital chinoiserie wallpaper for a nano second -- she would say if you can't afford to do the entire room, use a few framed panels or wait until you can, because nothing looks like the hand painted real thing. And she is absolutely right -- no photograph on paper looks as luxurious hand painted silk. That said, digital imaging has come a very long way, indeed.
I wish I could say I found this on my own, but it was another blogger who pointed me in this direction. I stumbled on
Textileaholic, a great blog that posted on the
Et Cie collection of Digital wallpapers at
Designer Wallcoverings. After quite a bit of further research, I have found that the digital images used by Designer Wallcoverings closely resemble Paul Montgomery Studio Collections as seen below.
Before I share some images from the Et Cie Collection, I thought I would share images of the hand painted darlings of the design world, Gracie, de Gournay and Paul Montgomery that have inspired many a search.
 |
| A custom Gracie wall covering on Aerin Lauder dressing room -- I am sure you have seen it. Ms. Lauder has impeccable style and taste and this Gracie paper is timeless. |
 |
| This is the Gracie paper that Tori Burch used in her absolutely perfect NYC apartment (see it here). According to Tori's blog, this classic design was based on an antique wallpaper owned by Pauline de Rothschild. The folks at Gracie advise that each order is different, custom designed specifically for the space at the clients request. |
 |
| Joseph Minton and his associates designed this dining room using de Gournay Wallpaper. Photograph by Emily Minton Redfield, Courtesy of Traditional Home |
 |
| A fabulous green dining room by Mary McDonald using de Gournay Earlham’ design in standard design colours on Emerald Green dyed silk. Photography by Dominique Vorillon, Courtesy of House Beautiful. |
Here is the clear inspiration for the Et Cie line: Paul Montgomery Studio:
and of course there are the landscapes from Paul Montgomery:
________________________________________________________________________________
Digital Chinoiserie Wallpaper
These papers seem to be almost exact copies of the the Paul Montgomery Studio papers. They do lack the depth, detail and patina (which seems to be added to the new wallpapers for effect) of the handpainted silks discussed above, but they are still impactful. Because these papers look so much like the Paul Montgomery collections, I have to wonder if the company itself is making digital copies of their work under a different name. Here are the images from Designer Wallpapers :
 |
| Looks Like cross between Paul Montgomery's Calloway and Wilmington, each panel is approximately $200 |
 |
| Looks like Paul Montgomery Hemmerling |
 |
Looks like Paul Montgomery Calloway, 5 Panel Set is 180" wide x 98" Tall (that is 15' x 8' !)
-- net price is just under $1000; $2000 retail |
 |
| Looks like Paul Montgomery Bresil |
I ordered a sample to look and see if you could see the pixels, and I could not. Here it is at a pretty high resolution, so you can see for yourself.
So what do you think, would you use a digital copy or save your grocery money for an original?
